December home loan snapshot: Fixed rates tumble amid avalanche of cuts

The latest Reserve Bank cut has, unsurprisingly, served as the catalyst for another round of widespread changes to home loan interest rates, with a majority of lenders having reduced rates over the past month.

According to the most recent Mozo Banking Roundup 1,996 home loan rate cuts were recorded in the Mozo database over the past month and more reductions are likely to follow in December as lenders yet to make post-RBA moves take action.

So what’s changed? As you would expect from this sizeable volume of cuts recorded, the home loan landscape has shifted - average rates have dropped across fixed and variable categories and a number of new, market-leading rates have emerged.

Lenders slash 4 and 5-year fixed rates

Following the emergency RBA cut in March, lenders largely focused on reducing fixed rate offers, and the same has happened again. As a result, all fixed rate home loan averages in the Mozo database have dropped since November 1, with the lowest average now 2.35% for 2-year fixed rates.

However, while the fixed cuts earlier in the year centered on shorter fixed terms, this month lenders have focused their attention on the 4 and 5-year fixed rates. Some of the notable changes in these categories include:

• Three of the four major banks - Commonwealth Bank, NAB and Westpac - are now offering 4-year fixed home loans with a headline rate below 2.00% for the first time

• Bank of Melbourne and St.George have become rate leaders in the 4-year fixed category by offering a rate of 1.94% (3.22% comparison rate*) with their respective Fixed Home Loans (Advantage Package)

• Newcastle Permanent now holds the rate-leading position in our database for a 5-year fixed rate offer after cutting over 100 basis points off the Premium Plus Package Fixed Rate Special

There were also some significant moves in the shorter fixed rate categories, with new rate leaders emerging in the 1, 2 and 3-year fixed categories. Here’s a snapshot of the lowest fixed rate^ offers in our database and the Mozo averages as of December 1, 2020:

ME and UBank among the few lenders to cut variable rates

Speaking of trends carried on from the RBA’s emergency cut in March, the majority of lenders haven’t passed on a 15 basis point rate cut to customers in response to last month's cut - although, this was largely anticipated. 

While there was less movement on the variable home loan front, there were enough cuts recorded over the past month to push the average owner-occupier variable rate in the Mozo database 3 basis points lower to 3.31%.

And there were also a few notable variable rate changes:

• ME and UBank were among the largest banks to pass on a 15bp cut to existing variable rate customers following the November RBA cut

• Online lenders Athena, FreedomLend, Homestar and Reduce Home Loans also all cut variable rates by 15bp or more

• Neobank 86 400 launched a new variable rate home loan called the Neat Home Loan which features rates as low as 2.19% (2.20% comparison rate*) for owner occupiers with an LVR of <60%

Interested in seeing how your own rate compares to some of the lowest variable rates around? Here’s a snapshot the five lowest variable rates^ in the Mozo database as of December 1, 2020:

RELATED: Home loan rates starting with ‘1’ pile up after RBA cut

Looking for more home loans information? Check out the Mozo home loan hub for the latest news, guides and other resources, or if you’re keen to find a better rate why not start by checking out some of the competitive offers in the table below.

^Based on an owner occupier making principal and interest repayments on a $400,000 loan with an 80% LVR. For more information on average home loan rates, check out our Australian home loan statistics.